{Guest Post} Women’s healthy lunch preparation

Modern day life has adopted many life style changes of which a good number is unhealthy. People are caught in a mad rush where they do not have time for preparing healthy food at home. Working parents resort to food from restaurants very often and their children naturally choose to eat easily available fast food. Junk food which is laced with synthetic colors and preservatives are high on calories. Such food only has adverse effects on human system and our health. Instead of grabbing the unhealthy food and spoiling our health we had better be cautious about the food we eat. There are other easy and healthy methods of preparing healthy food. Let us have a look at women’s healthy lunch preparation ideas.  

Dolmas wrap is a healthy Middle Eastern item for lunch which is full of dolmas and vegetables. It can be taken to work place if the components are packed separately. 

The ingredients required are;

•  ½ cup shredded romaine lettuce,
•  ¼ cup chopped cucumber, 
• ¼ cup chopped tomato, 
• ¼ cup low-fat plain yogurt, 
• a tablespoon crumbles of feta cheese, 
• 1/8 tea spoon garlic powder, 
• 1 whole-wheat lavash or whole wheat wrap 
• 3 prepared dolmas

Lettuce, cucumber, tomato, yogurt, cheese and garlic powder should be mixed in a bowl. The yogurt-lettuce mixture should be spread on the lavash, topped with dolmas and rolled. Lettuce- yogurt blend can be refrigerated up to one day.  

This Middle Eastern item contains 384 calories per serving. The calories are – 4 g fat, 12 mg cholesterol, 66g carbohydrates, 664 mg sodium, 15g protein, 9 g fiber and 360 mg potassium. It is also rich with vitamins A, C and calcium. We should have balanced food for maintaining our absolute physical health. The food we eat provides our body with essential nutrition: fluid, amino acids from protein, vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and adequate calories. Leafy vegetables, pulses, fresh fruits, dry fruits, dairy products etc. must be included in our diet.  A healthy diet supports the energy needs of the body, helps in removing toxins from the body from time to time and safeguards our body metabolism. We should eat roughly the similar amount of calories that our body is using. Excessive calories harm the rhythm of the body and our health.  

Author Bio:   

I am freelance writer. My name is Thomas. I have liked to sacrifice my knowledge and my experience to entire younger’s. I wrote more articles and assignment for the developing the students careers. I have loved my profession. Recently I am working at the scholarship essay writing service. I have written the more scholarship essays also. I will publish the article topic is “Women’s healthy lunch preparation”. 

Freebies from Minvita

I am so excited about writing this post because it's about something I have been waiting to happen.
About three of weeks ago, I was contacted by Minvita via my Twitter. They asked me if I was interested in trying some of their products for free. (HELL YEH!! I have been waiting for healthy/natural food companies to contact me to be their sampler.)

Minvita's Tweet to me

Who is Minvita?
Minvita is a company that sells natural and healthy food and beauty products from around the world. See their website here. I have been using their baobab powder for almost two years now; I add it to my smoothies almost every morning. If you've been following my blog for a while you know that I discovered baobab powder at the Organic and Natural Beauty Show back in 2013.

So what happened and what did I get?
When I saw the tweet, the first thing I did was not replying to them but screen shotted the tweet and posted it on Facebook. Haha.
The social media manager of Minvita offered me to try sachets of their superfood or superfruit powders and body oil or a full-size tub if I was interested in one powder in particular.  They have so many products that I wanted to try but I did not want to be greedy so I just asked for sachets of the mulberry powder, a bit of sprouted black rice and bit of the baobab oil. I was intrigued by the body oil because I have been using the powder orally but never thought about applying on my skin.

So anyway, they sent me the products in less than a week. When the postman delivered it to me I was surprised to see the box because I thought there is no need to put the sachets in a box, they're only small. Or maybe they just wanted to ensure the products are well protected. I opened the box and I saw a full size tub of the mulberry powder along with a few extra sachets of it and baobab powder, a full size pack of the sprouted black rice, a few sachets of the body oil and some information leaflets.

I can't wait to use them. I will definitely share recipes and reviews soon. Minvita you are SUPER generous! Thank you so much!!

Banana Oatmeal Pancake {recipe}

I have been quiet with my weekly blogs and have let the guest posts take over the job in the past few months. Since I started a full time job, I haven’t been able to find the time to blog.  But I am never too busy for fitness. 

So what's been happening in the last few months?

I've started my very first full time job in an accelerator program as an Events & Marketing manager meaning I am involved with events a lot. It is my dream job. I love it when we have events because I am kept busy and I will be power walking from A to B, B to C, etc, throughout the day. That's exercise right there! But when we don't have events I will be sitting down majority of the time. Fortunately, my job is very flexible, I can get out of my desk and go for a walk whenever I want and  they have high desks where I can stand and work which helps a bit I guess. The fact I'm sitting majority of time that forces me to become active and stay motivated to keeping fit. 

Not only have I temporarily stopped blogging, I also stopped going to my spinning classes (last time I went was probably back in May). I went back on Thursday evening and boy I was struggling like hell. I couldn’t do one full turn from flat resistance, I could just about do a half turn. Throughout the lesson the instructor gives us guidance by telling us to keep our RPM to a certain number. Whatever the RPM he said, mine was always way below it. I just could not keep up. My average RPM was 62 and my highest was 135. Nevertheless, good thing I sweated a lot. My top was soaking with my sweat, yuk I know! 

I was surprised I struggled so much though because I have been jumping rope and doing lots intense cross fit exercises. I will write another blog about my recent fitness regime and goals. Anyways, I am about to share a new healthy and simple pancake recipe. 

Banana Oatmeal Pancakes {Recipe}

This morning I made some healthy pancakes. That's something I haven't made in a while too, I used to make healthy pancakes almost every Sunday. 

These pancakes have no added sugar and are high in protein and fibre. The riper the banana the sweeter will the pancakes be. If you prefer them sweeter,  I will suggest adding a couple of dates instead of sugar.  

You will need: (serves 1-2 people)

- I ripe banana

- 1 whole egg (I added an extra egg white for more protein)

- 1/2 cup of rolled out oats

- 1 tsp of cinnamon 

- 1 tsp Madagascar vanilla extract (optional. I add this for some nice aroma)

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method:

Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add a bit of milk or water to help it blend. 

Heat the pan with a drop of oil. Pour the batter in and cook each side for about 1.5 minute over

low heat. You won't need to add additional oil for the next few batches if you're using a non-stick pan. 

You can eat the pancake as it is or serve with whatever you like. But to keep it healthy don't opt for butter and syrup ;)  I will suggest: nut butter (my favourite is almond butter), berries, and/or other fruits. 

Thanks for reading. Please share if you liked my recipe and let me know if you do make theses banana oatmeal pancakes :)

The Advantages of Making Smoothies

We are seeing a rising trend in drinking juice and/or smoothie for aiding weight loss and for other health reasons. In today's post I want to talk about the advantages that I find in drinking smoothies.

I must say the word "Smoothie" is definitely being over hyped and people tend to associate smoothies with a healthy diet and lifestyle. However, there are good smoothies and bad smoothies. In my opinion bad ones are those that contain chemical ingredients like additives, preservatives and other ingredients that is not the real fruit or vegetable; some smoothies are made from purée.  Good ones shouldn't contain these and should only contain raw fruits and/or vegetables, water, milk (non-diary or diary), natural fresh juice, and other natural ingredients. If I was to add juice into my smoothies, I would use the juice I made myself. For example, I would squeeze my own orange juice. Yes, it's time consuming therefore I only use juice when I have plenty of time. Also, some smoothies contain high levels of added sugar which doesn't make it healthy. Fruits naturally contain sugar and some smoothies that you buy contain added syrup/sugar.

I started drinking and making my own smoothies three years ago and I still have them daily. I have become more creative with them as I get a lot of inspirations from the healthy food related accounts on Instagram. Anyways, moving on to the advantages of smoothies.

Advantage 1 & 2- Quick & Highly Nutritious Breakfast

Me and my smoothie on the go

Many people skip breakfast either because they don't have time in the morning or they are trying to lose weight. If its the latter, I can go on all day moaning at you about it. All I will say for now is that you are making a massive mistake! If it's the first one, then smoothie can be a solution. You can drink the smoothie on your way to work. The process of making a smoothie still requires a bit of time, so maybe make it before going to bed and keep it chilled. I prefer my smoothies fresh so I always make time for it in the morning, but I wash my vegetables and fruits the night before. That does make a different, every minute counts right?

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day so you want to make it as nutritious as possible as your body will absorb the nutrients more effectively on an empty stomach. So add about 3-5 or more ingredients into your smoothie to charge your body before lunch.

I always put lots of ingredients in my smoothie. That doesn't mean I drink 2- 3 glasses of smoothies, my smoothie usually is about 500 ml. I tend to add a lot of so called "superfood" with some other fresh fruits and vegetables and sometimes nut butter. The superfood includes baobab powder, maca powder, hemp protein powder, spirulina, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds,gojiberries, etc.

Advantage 3- Feel fuller (than juice)
Smoothie contains all the bits which are the necessary fibers that your body needs for good digestion and makes you feel full. A meal high in fiber keeps you fuller for longer. 

Advantage 4- Sneak in what you don't like

A smoothie is a good for sneaking in anything you don't like, but happens to be good for you. Also a good way to get your children to have more fruits and vegetables. I hate avocado, but it contains so many health benefits so I sneak it into my smoothies every morning. My favourite combination is avocado, banana, almond milk, almond butter, kale and baobab powder. I cannot taste the avocado at all and the smoothie is so delicious. Score!

Sneaky avocado smoothie

For those who avoid avocado because of its high fat content, don't worry! It contains healthy fat known as monounsaturated fat, which speeds your metabolism up, gives you a feeling of fullness, nourishes the skin and joints, soothes the gut and digestive system. Helps burn belly fat!

October Healthy Food Haul

Hi guys! I love shopping for healthy food and drinks. Holland and Barratt has been doing the penny sale this month (3 days left! So hurry before it finishes.) and I have of course done some shopping but only a little this time just to restock my kitchen. 

I ran out of baobab powder, protein powder and sunflower seeds so had to get restock them. Out of the three only baobab powder was on sale, £14.79 for one and so two for £14.80. The last protein powder I used was Good Hemp Fit Shake protein powder and since then I have developed a love for hemp protein and seeds. I like trying different brands so this time I bought Pulsin' Hemp protein, and it tastes a lot better then Good Hemp. (I recently found out that hemp is a type of cannabis, I am so slow! Lol. Did you know that?)  The sunflower seeds were only £1.99 for 500g, I thought that was a good deal. I love adding sunflower seed to my breakfast because it creates a nice crunchy texture.

A couple of weeks later, I went back to H&B to use my £4 reward coupon and I picked up a pack of cocoa nibs. Never tried it before but I seen it a lot on instagram. I follow a lot of healthy and fitness people on instagram, like me they post photos of their food and cocoa nibs have been featured a lot. 

I've been adding the cocoa nibs to my breakfast and it's got a quite bitter and slight sour taste. I'm not sure if I like it. I will try melting them in pancakes and see if they taste any better.

I went Sainsbury's the other day just to get Good Hemp milk and they have stocked some new stuff. Rude Health non- dairy organic milk. I bought all 3 including Good Hemp Milk. 

What I really like about Rude Health's milk is their ingredient. It short and simple. Only has words that you can pronounce, however I don't know how true that is because how do you make milk last for months or a year? But they have won a Soil Association Organic Award 2013 so must mean something.

Some of you might be thinking "why don't you just make your own non-dairy milk?" I know I can, I mean anyone can but the process is too long. I might do it when I have time though. 

I will definitely do a review on Rude Health's milk very soon. 

Did you buy anything from the penny sale? What did you get? Do you like buying healthy food and drinks?

{Recipe} Quinoa Superfruit Pancakes

Hello my lovely readers and foodies. I know I've been lazy with blogging lately but not with cooking healthy food though. Sunday means pancake day for me! Last Sunday I made bulgar wheat pancakes, this week I experimented with quinoa. Initially, I made a pot of quinoa for lunch and dinner but then decided to make pancake with them.

I made the pancakes with wholemeal flour, I also added two superfruits, baobab powder and gojiberries, making them filled with antioxidant, vitamin C and potassium. The quinoa also makes the pancake high in fibre and protein. The pancakes turned out quite soft and delicious! I didn't measure the ingredients I just spooned them in according to how I felt. lol. I made 5 medium sized pancakes.

Ingredients for the pancake:
- 3 tbsp of cooked quinoa
- 3 tbsp wholemeal flour (you can use regular flour if you want)
- 1 egg
- 4 tbsp of milk
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp of brown sugar
- 1 tsp of baobab powder
- 1 tbsp of gojiberries

Method:

1. First cook the quinoa. I cooked 1/2 cup of quinoa with 1 cup of hemp milk and a pinch of salt. I usually cook quinoa with water but decided to try something different. Bring to boil and then half cover the pot with a lid and simmer for about 15 minutes. Once all water/milk has been absorbed, take off the heat, cover totally and leave to stand for about 10 minutes.

2. Mix the quinoa, flour, milk, baobab powder, baking powder and egg in a bowl. Add vanilla extract, baobab powder, mix well. Finally add the gojiberries- I would soak the gojiberries in hot/warm water for a minute or 2 first to soften them a bit.

3. Heat the pan and add a little bit of oil. Little meaning 2-3 drops.

4. Pour some batter into the pan. Fry each side for about 1.5 minute on LOW heat; the sides will have turned slightly brown and the middle will be bubbling. I found that 1.5 minute will brown the pancakes perfectly, see below.

5. Served with your favourite toppings. I served my with butter, maple and carob syrup, frozen blueberries and dusted some cinnamon powder on top.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading, I hope you liked this recipe and if you did please share! :)

Did you have pancakes today? Have you made pancakes with quinoa? 

Lean Challenge Day 8 & 9- progress

Hello my lovely readers! As promised, here is a photo of my abs after a week of clean eating and intense workout.  Left photo is day 1 of the challenge and the right photo is Day 8 (yesterday). The abs are definitely coming along, I didn't take a photo of my arms because I didn't think they changed much. Three more days till my birthday, lets see how much my body will change by then.

Left: Day 1 Right: Day 8

I took the photo after my workout which was my usual hardcore Monday workout; weight training and spinning. I changed it round this week, went spinning first then did 45 mins of weight training. The main reason was because I could't get out of bed. I went to bed late on Sunday as I was watching some Hong Kong drama, they can be quite addictive lol.

I think I've fallen in love with green smoothies now, I don't feel complete if I don't have it during the day. I had this before my workout; a handful of spinach, a cup of fresh pineapples, 1 banana, 1 tbp of baobab powder, 1 cup of oat milk, 1 tbsp of maca powder ( for extra energy boost).  I had the same one this morning, tasted so goooood!!

I cooked dinner for my family last night. My parents used to always complain how I don't cook Chinese but Western food only, i.e. pasta. I have now showed them that I have upgraded my cooking skills lol.
I made steamed salmon where I topped it with spring onions and drizzled with some cooked sunflower oil and soya sauce. The dish on the left is stir fried tofu with diced chicken, red pepper, black fungus and green beans. Again I added my favourite Shaoxing cooking wine to this. The last one is just some plain boiled green leaves. I'm not sure what they are called in English, kan choi? This is a typical Chinese meal where it will consist of steamed fish, boiled vegetables and a stir fried dish.

No this is not rice or brown rice, it's bulgar wheat. I had this instead of rice but I cooked my family a mixture of red, black, white and brown rice. My first time cooking and having bulgar wheay.  I think I cooked it with too much water because it turned out quite soggy. This was so filling and tastes better than quinoa.

Day 9 which is today, I didn't workout. But I will do another hardcore session tomorrow to make up for it. I might do some leg raises and 100 squats before bed tonight. :)

My lunch and dinner. Made a big pot of whole wheat pasta with calamari, prawns and mussels in tomato sauce.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Shopping at Holland & Barratt, the penny sale

Hiya, have you guys been shopping at Holland & Barratt? The penny sale is back! I spent £60 on 13 products. For those who don't know what penny sale is, its almost like buy 1 get 1 free but you get the second item for 1 penny.

First, here are some aloe vera juice. I bought the plain aloe vera juice and also the cranberry flavour aloe vera juice. £6.70 for the 2 plain aloe vera juice and £8.20 for the 2 cranberry flavour. I'm glad they were included in the penny sale because I have always wanted to try them. I can now add them to my smoothies.

Yes, I love my aloe vera so I bought 2 aloe vera gel. I haven't even finished the ones I bought last time during the penny sale.I really like this, and it works really well. I know it works for sure because one time I was curling my hair and I burnt my ear. I immediately put this aloe vera gel and I didn't get any scab or burning feel after. Before trying this gel, I used to just put cold water on the affected area but never worked. 

I paid £7 for the two.

My favourite type of honey, Manuka. Going to be adding them to my breakfast and smoothies/ shakes. £22.56 for the two. If they weren't on the penny sale I would not pay £22 for a jar of honey even though its very good for you. 

Not sure why I bought these, I think because they are cheap. I still have a lot of ginger tea at home. But I thought I'll stock up for the winter season. lol. £2 for the two.

My recent favourite superfood powder, baobab powder. £5 for both. There are 10 sachets in each box, each sachet is 5g so in total I got 100g. Thinking about it, it's actually cheaper to get the full size one, 250g for £14.79. I guess the penny sale made it look attractive, I wasn't thinking properly lol. But Minvita is cheaper than the brand Aduna who also sells baobab powder. Aduna sells 170g  of loose powder for £17.99. They taste the same. (Click here to read about my blog on Aduna)

And last but not least, the castor oil. This wasn't past of the penny sale but I needed a new one as I've almost finished the one at home. I use this on my skin at night and its extremely thick but hydrating. This bottle will last me over a year. £9.98 for 250ml. May not sound a lot but a little goes a long way castor oil. 

I think I'm going to shop again, I forgot to buy some fitness supplement and need to buy some more manuka honey while its cheap. I can get so carried away and spend £60 again. lol

Did you shop at Holland & Barratt? What did you get?

Aduna- Baobab Love

Hiya everyone! Hope you all had a good week. I did. Have any of you heard of Aduna or baobab fruit? If you've read my two previous post (Here & Here), then you should have. I have to say its one of my favourites. I've been adding the baobab fruit powder to my smoothies and breakfast.

That's 100% wheat bran, with semi-skimmed milk, blueberries, manuka honey and baobab powder.

I know the presentation of this one isn't very good lol. That's wheat bran served with a fig, blueberry smoothie, manuka honey and baobab powder. The smoothie was made with blueberries, Greek yoghurt and semi-skimmed milk. 

This is again wheat bran (I've been having wheat bran quite a lot in the last couple of weeks), semi-skimmed milk, banana and baobab powder.

Frozen strawberries and banana, blended with semi-skimmed milk, milled linseed and other seeds and baobab powder. The banana turned black over night in the freezer and weird thing was the skin was frozen but the pulp was mushy. lol

This is made with frozen blackberries, banana, and strawberries, shelled hemp seed, baobab powder and a cup of water.

How does it taste like?

Aduna described the taste as a combination of pear, grapefruit, caramel and vanilla. Sounds very yummy right? I would agree it taste a bit like grapefruit because it has that soury, citrusy taste. But I don't think it taste like caramel or pear maybe a bit of vanilla. Nevertheless I like it. 

What are the benefits?

Seems like it has almost everything our body needs, the perfect fruit. The leaflet also indicates that baobab supports energy metabolism, immune system, reduction of tiredness and fatigue, promotes good digestive health and good skin health as it is in high in antioxidants.

Aduna's Baobab Fruit powder is 100% organic, no preservatives, no additives, suitable for vegetarian and vegan and good for children. This is just perfect!

Day at the Free From & Allergy Show and V Delicious Show

Hello lovelies, as mentioned in my previous post (Organic and Natural Beauty show) I was going to a Free From and Allergy show and V delicious show this weekend just went. And I did. Basically there's two events in the same venue, half of the venue was companies selling natural/ organic products and allergy products and the other half was vegetarian and vegan food and drinks. I used to feel sorry for those who were allergic to gluten because it meant that there are lot they can't have but after going to this show I changed my perspective as there were so many gluten free products.

Anyways, I started with the V Delicious show. There were so many gluten free bread companies, and tried almost all of them. Yes, I was there mainly for the food lol.

There too many people that I couldn't even bothered to walk the whole venue. I wanted to look for natural fitness products but didn't seem to find much.

These are some pretty gluten free cupcakes!

My shoppings and freebies

I bought a pack of gluten free tagliatelle, they were selling it for £1. They also did a chick pea fusili but they were sold out :(

I immediately tried it when I got home. I liked it, it tasted much better than normal pasta and I loved the chewy texture. It's made with rice flour and corn.

If you're a regular reader of mine you will know I have Good's hemp protein fit shake and guess what? Good was there. There were selling hemp milk and hemp oil. I bought two carton's of milk for £2. It tastes a bit like vanilla and my mum doesn't like the taste. Weirdo! lol

Aduna was there too. In my previous post about my day at the Organic and Natural Beauty show, I mentioned that Aduna was my favourite company as they were different from the others. This time I did buy something, 170g of fruit pulp loose powder for £15, as a student that is not cheap at all but considering all the benefits it has for the body and skin its well worth it! Oh just a reminder, it is 100% natural baobab fruit pulp.

This is Dr. Bonner organic castile soap. I have been looking to buy castile soap because I have been looking to make my own shampoo. As you may know, shampoos contain a lot of harsh chemicals. I found out that castile soap can be used as a gentle shampoo. Castile soap don't contain any harsh chemicals, it is made with vegetable oil only. Castile soap has a lot of uses, can be used a shampoo, an alternative to toothpaste, laundry detergent, washing up liquid, used to wash vegetables and many more. I bought the green tea scented one. £10 for 1 litre, I felt it was worth it because its about £8.79 for 472ml in Holland & Barrett and Planet Organic.

I bought an organic self tan lotion from the brand Green People for £14. I sort of regret buying this now lol. This is in a cream form, but Tanorganic (the company that I saw in Organic & Natural beauty show) is oil based and I prefer that. 

 

The sachets were freebies from Green People. The little block thing is a handmade soap by another brand which I have forgotten the name lol.

Another freebie, cooking coconut oil.

And finally a free sachet of organic hemp seed

Did you go to any of those shows? Do you like organic and natural products?